Integrate Sustainability 03 June 2021

Technology

Google Earth Engine - How it can

be used in Environmental Science
Rafael Louzeiro – GIS/Environmental Specialist
Remote sensing (RS) is the collection of physical characteristics of an area based on
measuring radiation and reflection from a distance, such as an aircraft, drones and
satellites (USGS 2020). RS datasets have been collected from satellites for decades
with much of this data is stored in large datasets, and the potential information is not
fully realised or utilised. Until recently, the possibility of processing RS data has been
limited for available software. With the recent release of more efficient software that
is able to process multiple parameters collected through RS over short periods things
have changed. These processing tools are handy for quickly analysing environmental
and climate parameters over a target area. In this space, Google has developed a
cloud computing platform called Google Earth Engine (GEE), which is open-source
and free.

Google Earth Engine

The GEE platform stores historical satellite imagery and allows programming with
JavaScript language to undertake geospatial analyses. Applications include forest
and water coverage, land-use change, vegetation health, disease outbreak, fire
management, temperature and weather, and many others (Gorelick 2017). GEE was
launched in 2010, and it is the tool that most users would be familiar with to produce
time-series images through the "Google Earth Timelapse" in Google Earth. More Summary/Quote
recently, the GEE has been utilised for analysing RS datasets and used in many
different areas of study, including:
 Forest and vegetation analyses;
 Land use and land cover studies;
 Ecosystem and sustainability;
 Wetland and hydrology;
 Agriculture, and
 Other applications. (Meisam Amani 2020).

Google Earth Engine – How it can help?

There are many benefits of the GEE that make it a useful tool for data analysis and RS
worldwide. For examples:
The GEE platform stores
a) Access and Use historical satellite imagery and
allows programming with
First of all, to use GEE you need to sign up and log in through the GEE website
JavaScript language to
(https://signup.earthengine.google.com). Once you have logged in, it will provide undertake geospatial
access to the GEE homepage and datasets, as shown in Figure 1. The platform can be analyses. Applications include
accessed simply by having an internet connection. forest and water coverage,
land-use change, vegetation
health, disease outbreak, fire
management, temperature
and weather, and many others
(Gorelick 2017)

Figure 1 -
GEE Website
Interface. Source: GEE
As a Google tool, GEE has the advantage of linking and using data from other Google products such as Google Colab
and Google Drive. It means that any RS data saved to these Google products can be accessed and analysed using the
GEE.

Using GEE requires some knowledge in JavaScript language to write codes to instruct analysis. With several lines of
code, the GEE can perform calculations on large datasets. Don’t be disheartened as even with no, or limited,
knowledge of JavaScript the GEE can still be used. Google has produced a handy guide to help with generating and
writing codes (https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/guides). As an open-source tool, many codes have
already been developed and are available online to undertake particular interest analyses.

b) Fast processing and high performance

Instead of calculating on only one computer, the GEE can distribute the processing work to multiple computers
reducing the processing time. In some cases, satellite image has already undergone a level of basic processing. This
means faster processing of RS datasets, which results in quicker turn around time for users at a lower cost.(Gorelick
2017).

The GEE interface has a huge database of satellite imagery and pre-processed datasets. It is organised on the “Earth
Engine Data Catalog” (Figure 2) with the datasets categorised by:
• Climate and Weather – Here, you can find out information like Surface Temperature, Climate, Atmospheric and
Weather;
• Imagery – In this section of the catalogue, you will find out some of the most used satellite images like Landsat,
Sentinel, MODIS and also some high-resolution images; and
• Geophysical – The most used geophysical data found in the catalogues are the Digital Elevation Models (DEMs),
Landcover, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Cropland.

Figure 2 - GEE Catalogue and Australian Data. Source: GEE

Users can access and use the pre-processed datasets to create their own analyses or access the imagery and raw
data for analysis. For Australian users, some of the Australian data available include the “Australian 5M DEM”, “DEM
SRTM Hydrogeology and Smoothed” and “Soil and Landscape
Grids of Australia.

c) Functionality
The GEE has huge potential to calculate and analyse data for a
range of purposes. Some of the basic functions of the GEE
include:
• Calculating spectral indices;
• Cloud masking and use to collections of imagery; and
• Time-series charts including creating graphs in the GEE
that show the “time X data” relation and represent the
result of the data analysed, such as average NDVI values.
There are hundreds of other tools and features in the GEE
(Figure 3). To find out more, visit the GEE website or other
websites like “Spatial Thoughts” (Gandhi 2021). Real Uses
Figure 3 - GEE applications (Meisam Amani 2020).
Real Uses of the Google Earth Engine in Environmental Sciences
Below are examples of how the GEE has been used in the environmental sciences to answer complex questions and
management of the natural world.

1. Vegetation
The GEE has huge potential for analysing vegetation, including:
• Estimation of key biodiversity variables such as Leaf Area Index (LAI);
• Examining the fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (FAPAR);
• Examining the Fraction Vegetation Cover (FVC) and Canopy Water Content (CWC) using MODIS historical data;
and
• Mapping vegetation using MODIS or Landsat to create Enhanced Vegetation Indices (EVI). (Kumar and Mutanga
2018).
In Australia, the Federal Government, in collaboration with the University of New South Wales, has developed a
rapid mapping approach to map fire severity. This tool aims to quantify the impacts of wildfires on flora, fauna, and
ecological communities to identify appropriate
responses and recovery actions. The GEE Burnt Area
Map (GEEBAM) uses the Sentinel 2 images (Figure 4)
with a resolution of 15m to classify the burnt area in 4
classes:
 Little change observed between pre and post fire;
 Canopy unburnt – A green canopy within the fire
ground that may act as refugia for native fauna,
may be affected by fire;
 Canopy partially affected – A mix of burnt and
unburnt canopy vegetation; and
 Canopy fully affected – The canopy and
understorey are most likely burnt. (Department
Figure 4 - Sentinel-2 Surface Reflectance (Department of Agriculture 2020)
of Agriculture 2020).
The outcome of mapping fire severity is understanding where potential refuges are and formulating appropriate
conservation measures and landscape scale management (Department of Agriculture 2020).

2. Land Cover and Land Use (LCLU)

LCLU is a methodology already commonly used by environmental professionals. Geoscience Australia and the
Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) have been working to develop a
National Dynamic Land Cover Dataset (DLCD) for Australia using data from MODIS (Richard Lucas 2019). The GEE
was used to analyse and view the results for several study areas. The data from a study site in Queensland identified
mangrove dieback in the southeastern Gulf of Carpentaria, reduced dam water levels (Figure 5) and an associated
expansion of vegetation in Lake Ross, Burdekin (Richard Lucas 2019). There is potential to apply and expand this
mapping to cover the whole of Australia to assist with land management practices.

Figure 5 - Decrease in the extent of water in Lake Ross (Richard Lucas 2019).
3. Natural Disaster
The UNI-Spider Knowledge Portal platform has been using the
GEE as a tool to try to analyse and mitigate natural disasters.
They are developing and making codes and scripts designed to
monitor environmental elements associated with emergency
response. The codes can be applied worldwide to assist with
the emergency response following natural disasters or
understanding and modelling how a natural disaster may affect
an area. The work has documented the following:
• Recommended Practice: Flood Mapping and Damage
Assessment using Sentinel-1 SAR data in Google Earth
Engine; and
• Recommended Practice: Drought monitoring using the
Standardised Precipitation Index -SPI (UNOOSA/UN-
SPIDER 2020).
The “Recommended Practice: Flood Mapping and Damage
Assessment using Sentinel-1 SAR data in Google Earth Engine”
can be used to provide a comprehensive overview of a flood Figure 6 - Flood mapping. Source: Chiefscient
from small communities to States (UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER 2020). In addition to the outline of flood areas, this code
produces information about farmland affected to better plan for food security concerns after a disaster and the number
of families that have been or could be affected by natural disasters. If you are interested in knowing a little more about
these codes and how they work in practice, they are freely available through the UNI-Spider Knowledge Portal.
There are enormous opportunities for using the GEE to analyse remote sensing data on a small scale (such as a mine site
or farm) and more broadly. If you or your company is interested in these opportunities, the team at Integrate
Sustainability has experience in data acquisition, management and analysis. Please contact us to discuss your spatial and
remote sensing data needs to see how we can support you further on (08) 9468 0338 or email
enquiries@integratesustainability.com.au

References
Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. 2020. Australian Google Earth Engine Burnt
Integrate Sustainability Area Map A Rapid, National Approach to Fire Severity Mapping. Canberra, July 2020, CC BY 4.0.:
Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.
Primary Business Address
Lower Ground Floor Gandhi, Ujaval. 2021. Spatial Thoughts. Accessed 05 20, 2021. www.spatialthoughts.com.
3 Richardson St Gorelick, N., Hancher, M., Dixon, M., Ilyushchenko, S., Thau, D., & Moore, R. 2017. Google Earth Engine:
West Perth, 6005 Planetary-scale geospatial analysis for everyone. Accessed 05 10, 2021. https://
Western Australia earthengine.google.com/platform/.

Phone: (+618) 9468 0338
E-mail: enquiries@integratesustainability.com.au
Kumar, L., and O. Mutanga. 2018. Google Earth Engine Applications Since Inception: Usage, Trends,
and Potential. Remote Sens.
Meisam Amani, Senior Member, IEEE, Arsalan Ghorbanian , Seyed Ali Ahmadi , Mohammad Kakooei ,
Armin Moghimi , S. Mohammad Mirmazloumi, Student Member, IEEE, Sayyed Hamed Alizadeh
Moghaddam , Sahel Mahdavi, Masoud Ghahremanloo, Saeid Parsian, Qiusheng Wu. 2020. Google Earth
Engine Cloud Computing Platform for Remote Sensing Big Data Applications: A Comprehensive
Review. IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE
SENSING, VOL. 13,.

Richard Lucas, Norman Mueller, Anders Siggins, Christopher Owers, Daniel Clewley, Peter Bunting,
Cate Kooymans, Belle Tissott, Ben Lewis, Leo Lymburner and raciela Metternicht. 2019. "Land Cover
Mapping using Digital Earth Australia." Earth Observation Data Cubes. Accessed 05 20, 2021.
doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/data4040143.

UNOOSA/UN-SPIDER. 2020. United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, UN-SPIDER, Knowledge
Portal Space-based information for Disaster Management and Emergency Responsa. Accessed 02
2021, 2021. https://www.un-spider.org/advisory-support/recommended-practices/recommended-
practice-google-earth-engine-flood-mapping.

USGS. 2020. What is remote sensing? Accessed May 31, 2021. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-
remote-sensing-and-what-it-used.